Military Advice and Civil-Military Relations

<p>This monograph examined three of the variables that impact the civil-military relationship with regard to understanding how military advice is received by civilian leadership -- combat military experience of civilian leaders political expertise of military leaders and service parochialism -- and examined them in the context of the Vietnam War and Operation Iraqi Freedom. The lack military experience of civilian leaders did not detract from the military security of the nation with respect to the health of civil-military relations. The conclusion about political expertise in military leaders largely depends on the type of conflict. Service parochialism is a factor of the civilian leaders'; receptiveness to military advice. In the aggregate politicians will only hear and listen to military leaders if several things manifest themselves simultaneously. First regardless of the civilian leadership's experience in the military the political administration must respect military culture as suggested by Herspring. Second military leaders must have political experience to understand the ancillary functions of irregular warfare as recommended by Janowitz. Finally there must exist a service culture that is divided enough to offer different opinions and alternatives but not so divisive that it appears ineffectual and incoherent as indicated by Feaver.</p><p>This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore you will see the original copyright references library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world) and other notations in the work.</p><p>This work is in the public domain in the United States of America and possibly other nations. Within the United States you may freely copy and distribute this work as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.</p><p>As a reproduction of a historical artifact this work may contain missing or blurred pages poor pictures errant marks etc. Scholars believe and we concur that this work is important enough to be preserved reproduced and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.</p>